Compensatory growth in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) inhibited by experimental Schistocephalus infections

2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 819-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazel A Wright ◽  
Robert J Wootton ◽  
Iain Barber
Keyword(s):  
Compensatory Growth ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Infected Fish ◽  
Growth Responses ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Host Fish ◽  
Growth Depression ◽  
Growth Compensation ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks ◽  
Partial Compensation

Compensatory growth responses are made by individual fish to restore their original growth trajectory following a period of growth depression. Little is known about whether diseases impact a fish's capacity for growth compensation. In this study we investigate the effect of Schistocephalus solidus, a common cestode parasite of threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), on the ability of host fish to undertake growth compensation following short-term food deprivation. Placebo-infected controls completely compensated for a 2-week deprivation period after 3 weeks postdeprivation feeding, but experimentally infected sticklebacks showed only partial compensation and after 6 weeks of refeeding had attained only 80% of the weight of continually fed infected fish. A major factor limiting the compensatory growth response of infected fish was their reduced hyperphagic response during the period of refeeding. Feed deprivation had no effect on ultimate parasite size of infected fish. We discuss the possible mechanisms limiting hyperphagia in infected fish and consider the fitness implications — for parasites and hosts — of the reduced ability of infected fish to undertake compensatory growth responses.

Catch-up growth and swimming performance in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus): seasonal changes in the cost of compensation

2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 2169-2176 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Álvarez ◽  
N B Metcalfe
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Season ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Compensatory Growth ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Swimming Performance ◽  
Growth Depression ◽  
Poor Growth ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Time Of Year

Compensatory growth is a phase of unusually rapid growth following a period of growth depression. This response allows animals to achieve the same size-for-age as continuously fed contemporaries. We tested the hypothesis that a period of poor growth followed by compensation reduces the swimming abilities of threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), even after the period of rapid growth had ceased; we also investigated how the time of year in which the rapid growth occurred affected the possible costs in swimming performance. The threespine sticklebacks showed a compensatory growth response after a period of food shortage, both in winter and in spring. This change in growth trajectory subsequently caused a reduction in ability to withstand high flows, but only when the period of rapid growth occurred just prior to the breeding season. We suggest that threespine sticklebacks may be willing to incur the swimming costs of catch-up growth just prior to the breeding season to maximize their expected reproductive success.

Host mortality and variability in epizootics of Schistocephalus solidus infecting the threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus

Parasitology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 137 (11) ◽  
pp. 1681-1686 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. HEINS ◽  
E. L. BIRDEN ◽  
J. A. BAKER
Keyword(s):  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Infected Fish ◽  
Threespine Stickleback ◽  
Intensity Of Infection ◽  
Host Fish ◽  
Schistocephalus Solidus ◽  
Second Intermediate Host ◽  
Host Mortality ◽  
Abiotic And Biotic Factors ◽  
Host Behaviour

SUMMARYAn analysis of the metrics of Schistocephalus solidus infection of the threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, in Walby Lake, Alaska, showed that an epizootic ended between 1996 and 1998 and another occurred between 1998 and 2003. The end of the first epizootic was associated with a crash in population size of the stickleback, which serves as the second intermediate host. The likely cause of the end of that epizootic is mass mortality of host fish over winter in 1996–1997. The deleterious impact of the parasite on host reproduction and increased host predation associated with parasitic manipulation of host behaviour and morphology to facilitate transmission might also have played a role, along with unknown environmental factors acting on heavily infected fish or fish in poor condition. The second epizootic was linked to relatively high levels of prevalence and mean intensity of infection, but parasite:host mass ratios were quite low at the peak and there were no apparent mass deaths of the host. A number of abiotic and biotic factors are likely to interact to contribute to the occurrence of epizootics in S. solidus, which appear to be unstable and variable. Epizootics appear to depend on particular and, at times, rare sets of circumstances.

Compensatory growth of pancreatic beta-cells in adult rats after short-term glucose infusion

Diabetes ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Bonner-Weir ◽  
D. Deery ◽  
J. L. Leahy ◽  
G. C. Weir
Keyword(s):  
Beta Cells ◽  
Pancreatic Beta Cells ◽  
Compensatory Growth ◽  
Glucose Infusion ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Adult Rats

scholarly journals Diversity and sexual dimorphism in the head lateral line system in North Sea populations of threespine sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus (Teleostei: Gasterosteidae)

Zoomorphology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Ahnelt ◽  
David Ramler ◽  
Maria Ø. Madsen ◽  
Lasse F. Jensen ◽  
Sonja Windhager
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Lateral Line ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Threespine Stickleback ◽  
Lateral Line System ◽  
Line System ◽  
Marine Population ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks

AbstractThe mechanosensory lateral line of fishes is a flow sensing system and supports a number of behaviors, e.g. prey detection, schooling or position holding in water currents. Differences in the neuromast pattern of this sensory system reflect adaptation to divergent ecological constraints. The threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is known for its ecological plasticity resulting in three major ecotypes, a marine type, a migrating anadromous type and a resident freshwater type. We provide the first comparative study of the pattern of the head lateral line system of North Sea populations representing these three ecotypes including a brackish spawning population. We found no distinct difference in the pattern of the head lateral line system between the three ecotypes but significant differences in neuromast numbers. The anadromous and the brackish populations had distinctly less neuromasts than their freshwater and marine conspecifics. This difference in neuromast number between marine and anadromous threespine stickleback points to differences in swimming behavior. We also found sexual dimorphism in neuromast number with males having more neuromasts than females in the anadromous, brackish and the freshwater populations. But no such dimorphism occurred in the marine population. Our results suggest that the head lateral line of the three ecotypes is under divergent hydrodynamic constraints. Additionally, sexual dimorphism points to divergent niche partitioning of males and females in the anadromous and freshwater but not in the marine populations. Our findings imply careful sampling as an important prerequisite to discern especially between anadromous and marine threespine sticklebacks.

Effects of constant and fluctuating temperatures on egg production in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 1599-1602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vital Boulé ◽  
Gerard J. Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Performance ◽  
Egg Production ◽  
Egg Size ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Reproduction Number ◽  
Temperature Fluctuations ◽  
Spawning Grounds ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks ◽  
Fluctuating Temperatures

Female threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) spend only 9–15 days on the spawning grounds, an intertidal salt marsh at Isle Verte, Quebec, during a 2-month breeding season. Individuals average only one spawning. However, in the laboratory they lay clutches of several hundred eggs every 3–5 days for several months. We designed laboratory experiments to determine (i) whether daily temperature fluctuations similar to those encountered in the marsh affect reproduction (number of clutches, number of eggs per clutch, and size of eggs) and (ii) whether the amplitude of the fluctuations encountered by the fish affects reproduction. We compared the reproduction of females held in fluctuating temperatures with that of females kept at 20 °C. Fish kept under fluctuating conditions produced more eggs per clutch but had longer interspawning intervals than those at 20 °C. Total seasonal egg production and egg size did not differ between the two groups. Fish in fluctuating temperatures survived longer and were in better condition than those at 20 °C. We conclude that the amplitude of the fluctuations is less important than mean temperature in determining reproductive performance. Fluctuating temperatures on the spawning grounds are not responsible for the short residency there.

scholarly journals Do algae blooms dilute the risk of trematode infections in threespine sticklebacks?

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 991-995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Budria ◽  
Ulrika Candolin
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Infected Fish ◽  
The Body ◽  
Filamentous Algae ◽  
Intermediate Hosts ◽  
Diplostomum Pseudospathaceum ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Trematode Infections ◽  
Macro Algae

Abstract Human-induced growth of macro-algae is often assumed to increase trematode infections in fishes by increasing the abundance and condition of the parasite’s intermediate host – snails – as this can boost the release of trematode larvae, cercariae, from the intermediate hosts. However, macro-algae can also impose barriers to the transmission of cercariae and reduce infections. We investigated whether an increased growth of filamentous algae affects the transmission of Diplostomum pseudospathaceum cercariae to the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus, a common fish in eutrophied shallow waters. We exposed sticklebacks to trematode cercariae in the absence and presence of artificial filamentous algae, and recorded effects on the proportion of sticklebacks infected and the number of encysted metacercariae per fish. No significant effect of artificial algae on cercariae transmission was detected. However, the body size and the sex of the sticklebacks were strongly correlated with the number of encysted metacercariae per infected fish, with females and larger individuals being more infected. We discuss different factors that could have caused the difference in parasite transmission, including sex-related differences in body size and behaviour of sticklebacks.

Burst swimming and its enzymatic correlates in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus): full-sib heritabilities

1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 680-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Garenc ◽  
Frederick G Silversides ◽  
Helga Guderley
Keyword(s):  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Creatine Phosphokinase ◽  
Swimming Performance ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Considerable Influence ◽  
Paternal Effects ◽  
Threespine Sticklebacks ◽  
Burst Swimming ◽  
Intrafamilial Variability

Full-sib heritabilities of burst-swimming capacity and its enzymatic correlates were calculated in juvenile threespine sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus, from 25 families raised under constant laboratory conditions. Variation among families in burst-swimming performance, enzyme activities, body size, and condition of the juveniles was considerable. Estimates of full-sib heritabilities of absolute and relative burst-swimming performance decreased during ontogenesis, as they were higher for 2-month-old than for 3.6-month-old sticklebacks. This decline may reflect a decrease in the importance of paternal effects with age, as well as an increase in intrafamilial variability due to the existence of feeding or social hierarachies. Enzymatic correlates of burst-swimming performance measured in 3.6-month-old sticklebacks had higher full-sib heritabilities than burst-swimming performance itself, with the highest values found for cytochrome c oxidase, followed by lactate dehydrogenase and then phosphofructokinase and creatine phosphokinase. These results suggest that genetic factors may have a considerable influence upon burst-swimming performance and muscle metabolic capacities of juvenile threespine sticklebacks, but that this influence may be tempered by biotic interactions.

The consequences of self-fertilization and outcrossing of the cestode Schistocephalus solidus in its second intermediate host

Parasitology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. CHRISTEN ◽  
M. MILINSKI
Keyword(s):  
Intermediate Host ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Life History Strategy ◽  
Body Cavity ◽  
Infected Fish ◽  
Mixed Mating ◽  
Schistocephalus Solidus ◽  
Self Fertilization ◽  
Second Intermediate Host

Many hermaphroditic parasites reproduce by both cross-fertilization and self-fertilization. To understand the maintenance of such mixed mating systems it is necessary to compare the fitness consequences of the two reproductive modes. This has, however, almost never been done in the context of host–parasite coevolution. Here we show the consequences of outcrossing and selfing in an advanced life-stage of the cestode Schistocephalus solidus, i.e. in its second intermediate host, the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Each juvenile stickleback was simultaneously exposed to 2 experimentally infected copepods, one harbouring outcrossed the other selfed parasites. At 60 days p.i. parasites were removed from the fish's body cavity and, with microsatellite markers, assigned to either outcrossed or selfed origin. Prevalence was not significantly higher in outcrossed parasites. However, those fish that were infected contained significantly more outcrossed than selfed parasites. Thus the probability of a selfed parasite to progress in the life-cycle is reduced in the second intermediate host. Furthermore, we found that even the multiply infected fish increased in weight during the experiment. Nevertheless, total worm weight in multiply infected fish was significantly lower than in singly infected ones, which thus might be a parasite life-history strategy.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document